The Country Music Hall of Fame was established in 1967 but moved to its current location in the heart of Downtown Nashville in 2001. The museum is one of the most iconic buildings in the city, and musical symbolism is heavily featured in its architectural design. From above, the building is shaped like a bass clef. From the street, the front of the building looks like a piano, with the windows emulating the black keys. The left side of the building features a rotunda, with a replica radio tower at its peak. Even the disc-shaped tiers on top of the rotunda have musical significance – they represent the evolution of musical recording, from the 78 to the vinyl LP to the 45 to the CD. And finally, the sweeping right edge of the building mimics the tail fin of Elvis Presley’s famous 1959 Cadillac.
We walked past and admired the building dozens of times as we traversed the city and even had a view of it from our hotel. But we were torn on whether or not we should visit. It is consistently rated one of the top 3 things to do in Nashville, but besides my mother, none of us knew much about country music. But when a chance overheard conversation led us to the Historic RCA Studio B Tour, we were sold (literally) on the Country Music Hall of Fame as well.
And I am so glad we visited! Even without much country music knowledge or interest, there was so much to see in this museum. After entering the museum, we took an elevator up to the third floor to begin the tour. The inside of the museum is designed as beautifully as the outside and the exhibits are so well done.
The main exhibit on the 3rd floor is Sing Me Back Home: Folk Roots to the 1960s. The exhibit gives the history of country music from the 19th century on. I loved the vintage prints that covered the wall advertising different performers, shows and venues.
And we all loved the cars on display in the museum! They have such a fascinating collection of tricked out cars, 1960s style. Webb Pierce’s 1962 Pontiac Bonneville was one of the most outrageous things I had ever seen. Seven foot wide steer horns adorn the front grille. The hood ornaments and door handles are shaped like six-shooters. Silver horses sit on the fenders. A saddle replaces the console. This car is both ridiculous and fascinating at the same time.
Not to be outdone, Elvis had his car plated in gold. Just past Webb Pierce’s masterpiece is Elvis’ 1960 Gold Cadillac. Covered in 40 coats of Diamond Dust Pearl paint (which contained crushed diamonds and fish scales), the car literally sparkles. Inside are gold drapes, a gold-plated TV and gold-colored velvet upholstery.
But as much as my boys marveled at these two cars, they were most excited to see the 1980 Pontiac Trans Am from Smokey and the Bandit on the second floor. They watched (tolerated?) that movie with my father and it sort of became a joke between them so they loved getting to see the car in person.
Another family favorite was the exhibits on the second floor featuring some really outlandish costumes. The cowboy-styled outfits were bright, flashy and fascinating to see up close.
The final part of the tour takes you through the Hall of Fame Rotunda. This section of the building was interesting from the outside but stunning from the inside. The huge, sweeping open space features bronze plaques of every member of the Hall of Fame. The metal lines on the wall represent a music staff, and the plaques are arranged like notes in the circular room. The 70 foot tall ceiling has a sky light to naturally brighten the room and the inverted radio tower drops down from the center. The words Will the Circle Be Unbroken encircle the inside of the room, while the stone bars on the musical staff encircling the exterior of the rotunda depict the melody of the song.
The other striking feature of the museum that we all loved was the record wall. Visible from multiple spots throughout the museum, the Gold Record Wall covered all three stories of the museum. The spiral staircase that took you from the third to the second floor gave you a close up view of the records and was a stunning architectural feature in its own right.
If you are in Nashville, you shouldn’t miss the Country Music Hall of Fame. It is a beautiful building with well designed exhibits. Even though we don’t love country music, we loved the building, the vintage prints, the ornate cars, and the eclectic costumes. It is really just an interesting place to walk through whether you know the names on the plaques or not. I’m glad we sort of fell into a visit here. It was definitely a worthwhile stop on our trip.
